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Beached, docked & dumped

NJ.com spoke with Dr. Paul Bologna, Biology, regarding the State’s abandoned boat problem

Posted in: Biology, In The Media, Marine Biology

An abandoned boat is washed ashore on Bay View Avenue near 24th Avenue in Seaside Park
An abandoned boat is washed ashore on Bay View Avenue near 24th Avenue in Seaside Park, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2022. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Tracking abandoned boats is not required by federal law, so states that see a benefit in doing so are left to invest in creating publicly-viewable maps on their own. A New Jersey State Police spokesman said the agency has not considered the utility of launching that kind of database.

But Montclair professor Bologna sees the upshot of such a proposal.

It would be very beneficial to tag these abandoned boats for the people that use that water for commercial or recreational purposes … It lets people know there’s a navigational hazard there. [Abandoned boats can have] fuel, oil, and other materials that are relatively toxic, that can leach out into the environment over a period of time … and those can be detrimental to the organisms that are nearby, as well as the water.

Dr. Bologna

Read the full article on NJ.com!